jodal said:
Here are some of the main areas we are looking at:
Double Bay
Rushcutters Bay
Elizabeth Bay
Darlinghurst
Bronte
Coogee
Bondi
Clovelly
Paddington
Any stories, advice etc. about any of the above areas would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Lifelong Sydneysider here (well, at least until i moved to the US a few years ago).
As others have said, that's some fucking expensive real estate you're looking at there, although if you're both going to be making decent money then you should be able to rent a pretty nice apartment or even a small semi-detached house.
Double Bay, Rushcutters Bay, and Elizabeth Bay are full of egregious yuppies as well as pretentious old money--the worst of both worlds, in my opinion. If you're close enough to Kings Cross, then it gets a little more gritty and interesting, but then you run into gawping tourists, drunken stag nights, and Pommy backpackers everywhere.
The eastern beachside suburbs like Bondi, Clovelly, etc. are all nice enough, especially if you really want to spend a lot of time at the beach. It's really nice to be able to walk to the beach, have a swim, and then walk home. Sydney has a reputation as a beach city, but the fact is that, if you don't live in one of the beachside suburbs, getting to the water can be a pain in the arse. Parking is a nightmare, public transport to the eastern suburbs is dodgy, and by the time you drag yourself all the way home again you're so hot that you may as well never have gone to the beach in the first place.
So, if the beach really is your thing, those places are good (although, again there's Pommy and German and Yank backpackers everywhere). If you want more than the beach from your Sydney experience, i'd go elsewhere.
Personally, i'm a huge fan of the area generally known as the Inner West. This encompasses suburbs like Ultimo, Glebe, Newtown, Redfern, Erskineville, Enmore, Annandale, Surry Hills, and a bunch of others. There are a few reasons i like this area.
a) Full disclosure: i lived in the Inner West for quite a few years, and a lot of my friends are there. That gives me personal reasons for spending time in these areas.
b) Despite the high price of Sydney real estate, and consequent gentrification, these areas are still more interesting and more diverse than the Eastern Suburbs, in my opinion. Better local pubs and bars, lots of restaurants, etc., etc. (Although Sydney pub culture, in my opinion, was fucked over by the state government decision to legalize poker machines in pubs and bars, turning many pubs from local watering holes with a good music scene into little more than smoke-filled gambling dens).
c) Ready access to pretty good public transport. Places like Newtown, Erskineville, Redfern, Stanmore, Macdonaldtown, etc. are right on the main train line, making it a ten-minute journey into the central business and shopping district. There are also good bus services down the main roads, Parramatta Road, King Street, Enmore Road, Glebe Point Road, etc.
d) Better walking than the Eastern Suburbs. Walking around the Inner West is easy and, for the most part, very safe. Things are pretty tightly packed in, so a half-hour walk can take you past lots of different places.
Anyway, that's my take on it. Make of that what you will. You need to make a decision based on the sort of life you want to lead in Sydney.
I did my undergrad degree at the University of New South Wales, which is in Randwick/Kensington. Because of this, i had quite a few friends in the Eastern Suburbs, and i spent quite a bit of time out there. Personally, i always found the Inner West much more appealing as a place to live.
She's only just got there and I know she's a bit worried about it but hopefully people will be friendly - she's moved from Switzerland and I know she found it hard to integrate there. 
I'm not commuting from Melbourne to Sydney every day.
